Card Trick Magicians and Flourishers

Card tricks, card flourishing and card manipulation is an exciting and fascinating branch of magic. let's delve deeper into the history of the masters who popularized the art form. Listed below are the top movers and shakers in the field of card magic from around the world.

Card Trick Magicians, Cardists and Flourishers have been roaming the globe for centuries; astonishing perplexing and fascinating audiences in a multitude of countries.

One of the earliest, references to card magic is an article from 1408, which tells of a card cheat in Paris who sought to gain advantage by manipulating the cards he was playing.

The first written accounts of actual performers of card tricks are: a 15th century unpublished manuscript co-authored by Leonardo da Vinci, describing a card trick performed by Giovanni de Jasone de Ferara,

and a 16th century piece by Cardanus detailing a performance by a spanish magician Dalmau, who entertained for Emperor Charles V, in Milan, Italy.

Today, Card manipulators, such as Jeff McBride, Aaron Fisher and Lee Asher have preserved the art; taking it's form to new heights, and creating the most ingenious of card effects.

More recently, card flourishers are ushering in a new era of card manipulation called Cardistry.

Cardistry is the non-magical manipulation of playing cards with intent to display creativity, performance art and skill. Cardists such Daniel Madison, and the Buck twins have popularized the art, further increasing it's subcultural growth.

• Bill Goodwin (b. ?) American magician and resident librarian for the famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. Goodwin is a specialist in card magic. Among his created effects are, Triad, Siamese Twins and Linking Laces.

• Roy Walton (b. 1932) British magician who's an expert in card magic. Walton currently lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. First interested in magic at the age of eight, Roy Walton is a world-recognized card magician creating hundreds of card tricks, including his most famous effect, Card Warp.

• Allen Ackerman (b. ?) American magician ho specializes in sleight of hand magic with playing cards. A student of cardician legend Ed Marlo, Allen has written a series of books, and performed on several instructional DVDs. He has also been a professor of mathematics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

• S.W. Erdnase (?-?) Author of "The Expert At The Card Table" (published in 1902), a book on pure sleight-of hand with cards which still stands among the very best works on the subject. Erdnase's true identity is one of the enduring mysteries of the magic community.

• Nestor Hato (b. ?) French magician/card flourisher who is most noted for his creative card manipulation act, "Crazy Card Magic." His act has garnered him numerous awards which has allowed him to travel worldwide.

Cardists/Flourishers

• Brian Tudor (b.1975) aka King Of Cards; an american magician/Flourisher who is one of the best performers of XCM, eXtreme Card Manipulation, and was the first card manipulator to create a videotape strictly teaching flourishing.
View Brian Tudor's video.

• Virtuoso Otherwise known as The Virts; four card artists from Singapore: Huron Low, Kevin Ho, Elijah Cai, Daren Yeow, who forged a card flourishing team in 2004 and took the world by storm.
View The Virts' video.

• Andrei Jikh (b.1990) Russian card artist/manipulator who has risen to the top of the cardistry artform in his teens. His videos have inspired and motivated cardists around the world. He released his much anticipated DVD set, entitled GENESIS V.1 through Theory11.
View Andrei's video.

• Claudio Merlini (b.?) aka CIAPPI. Italian Magician and master card manipulator who gained notoriety for competing in the Ulmen Trials in 2005. He is the only Italian manipulator and "Superhandz" member to ever take part of the trials. He is also a multi-winner of the X.C.M. (Xtreme Card Manipulation) competition.
View CIAPPI'S video.

• Jonas Haglund (b.1988 ) Swedish manipulator who made a name for himself in the underground card flourishing community.
View Jonas Haglund's video.

• Jaspas Deck (b.1988) Singaporean Card Flourishing expert, and champion flourisher who started manipulating at the age of 13. Over the years he has gained international recognition and received accolades from his peers alike.
View Jaspas' video.

• Scott and Sean (b.?) - England's the Watters brothers first surfaced in the cardistry community in 2004 with a flourish montage video known as "Fast Paste," posted on the Dan and Dave forums. They have since grown in skill and popularity.
View Scott and Sean's video.
• Alejandro Portela (b.1987) aka "TheCuso" from Vigo, Spain, is one of the more commonly known names through the world of flourishing. He has gained notoriety through his popular website "The Cuso.info," focusing on cardistry and flourishing.
View Alejandro Portela's video.

• Josh Sadowsky (b.?) American card magician and entrepreneur from Southern California. Josh specializes in creating original card tricks, gambling routines, and card flourishes. Some of his flourish creations include the "Fan Toss Flourish," "Wu-Tang Cut" and the "Rocket Ship Flourish."